Recent arts coverage:
- Evolutionary biology. Aesthetic determinism. Live action role playing. The Rude Mechs are making a new play again
- Suburban battlefield: Women fight invisible foe in Amie Siegel’s ‘Black Moon’
- In eerie paintings by Ana Fernandez, a house isn’t just a house
More arts coverage | Follow this blog on Twitter @artsinaustin | Read recent arts reviews
Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > September > 15 > Entry
Elisabet Ney Museum closed for landscape renovation
The Elisabet Ney Museum — the charming, quirky Hyde Park home and studio of the famed German-borb sculptress — will close for six to eight weeks while its grounds undergo an historic landscape restoration project to bring them back to the natural state they were in during the artist’s Austin life (1892-1907).
The free-spirited Ney came to Texas’ capital city and established a studio where she sculpted the “great men” of frontier Texas as she called them: Stephen F. Austin, Gov. Sul Ross, Gov. Francis Lubbock, among others.
She and her forward-thinking friends established initiatives that led to the University of Texas Art Department, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Texas Fine Arts Association and museums and art schools throughout the state,
The Ney Museum is one of the oldest museums in Texas.
The city of Austin’s Parks and Recreation released this info:
- The museum is closed for a Capital Improvement Project that will restore the landscape design to that of the time of the artist’s life at the turn of the 19th century. The work will be a restoration of a natural heritage landscape of Central Texas.
The landscape program is based on extensive research and documentation including Ney’s personal photographs, letters and descriptions. The native Texas landscape was an integral part of Ney’s studio, Formosa, (1892-1907), both in personal design and use. In addition to restoring Ney’s studio landscape, functional aspects of the historic site will be improved including access, sustainability and maintainability.
The landscape program complies with the city, state and national public land codes as required. Only one protected size tree will be removed from the Ney property due to the tree’s severely damaged and untreatable condition.
Comments
When commenting, we ask that you keep things civil and abide by our Visitor Agreement. To report comment abuse, click here.
By Old Austin
September 18, 2009 1:11 PM | Link to this
Cutting down the trees is beyond stupid. But even more so is this plan to remove the lovely stone wall in front of the museum, another Austin plan dreamed up by consultants from far away.
By Arborist
September 15, 2009 12:47 PM | Link to this
The real story here is all the environmentalists who are up in arms about the trees that will be cut down in order to bring the grounds back to their “natural state.”